Friday, July 05, 2013
Samsung's Second Quarter Result Hint At Galaxy Fatigue

Samsung Electronics missed the expectations for its quarterly earnings guidance on Friday, deepening worries that its Galaxy smartphone business may have peaked.

HTC also today reported underwhelming sales of the HTC One, which led the Taiwanese phone-maker to miss analysts' quarterly profit estimates.

Samsung's estimates for '13 2Q include approximately 57 trillion Won sales and an operating profit of approximately 9.5 trillion Won.

The preliminary estimate represents a 47 percent increase from a revised operating profit of 6.46 trillion won a year earlier, according to a Samsung regulatory filing. However, the released figures missed analysts' estimates, who are concerned that the high-end smartphone market is nearing saturation.

Samsung didn't provide net income figures or a breakdown of division earnings. Audited results are due later this month.

Samsung has already released Scaled-down versions of the S4 and other models are to protect market share from Chinese rivals selling low-cost smartphones. The company also plans to release more high-end models this year, including a device using the Tizen operating system and the Galaxy Note 3.

Wearable gadgets will also be crucial to Samsung's hopes of riding a new wave of profit growth.

Apple has applied for a trademark for "iWatch" in many countries (U.S.?) signaling the iPhone-maker may be moving ahead with plans for a watch-like device soon.
Samsung has also filed a trademark for "Samsung Gear" in the Untied States for its range of wearable devices.

Meanwhile, in the quarter ended June 30, HTC posted a net profit of $42 million, down 83% from a year ago.

HTC is expected to release the HTC One Mini by August. The smartphone will feature a 4.3-inch screen and come with slightly cheaper components than the 4.7-inch HTC One. Later, rumors suggest HTC should unveil an HTC One Max smartphone-tablet combination device.